


Bly's Bleeding Heart

by malaxandrite



Series: Brothers All [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bly has brown hair you cannot tell me otherwise, Cody's original name is Kote, No Beta We Die Like Clones, Pre-Canon, Protective Bly, cadet-napping, mutant clones are more common than the kaminoans want them to be, rex's hair is naturally blond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29032398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malaxandrite/pseuds/malaxandrite
Summary: Answering the age old question of how Rex and Cody became friends?
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CC-1010 | Fox, CC-2224 | Cody & CC-3636 | Wolffe, CC-2224 | Cody & CC-6454 | Ponds, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-5052 | Bly & CC-2224 | Cody, CC-5052 | Bly & CT-7567 | Rex
Series: Brothers All [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114940
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	Bly's Bleeding Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This work takes place before the clone wars start, around 27 BBY, when Cody and the others are about 5~6 years old (10~12 biologically). I'm also going with the head canon that Cody's originally name is Kote (Mando'a for glory) and that Cody is the transliteration in Galactic Basic, so that's what he's called in this. 
> 
> Mando'a translations are in the end notes

Kote and the rest of his batch—Bly, Wolffe, Fox, and Ponds—watch as the standard troopers a growth cycle younger than them spar on the mats below. Kote leans over on the railing of the catwalk and rests his chin in his palm. Alpha-17 had instructed them to watch and correct the cadets as needed, but, honestly, it’s mind-numbingly boring. There are already trainers down there to correct them. It’s not even a difficult maneuver and they’re all doing fine. 

Well, except for one cadet. 

He’s not doing poorly, in fact, he’s doing much better than the others, probably because they keep ganging up on him. But even then, he’s beating everyone who tries to take him. 

The kid’s a mutie, pale blond hair shining up from the dozens of black-haired heads like a beacon out at sea. He feels for the kid. Muties are already on thin ice for looking the way they do, and Kote knows they have to be twice as good to make sure they don’t get decommissioned. It’s cruel, but it’s the way things work. 

They watch for a while longer, before Kote notices Bly clutching the railing like he’ll be blown away if he lets go. His dark skin stretched so tight around his knuckles it’s as white as bone. Bly’s the most easy-going of their batch, seeing him so clearly distressed is sending alarm bells off in his brain. And, as the unofficial leader of their batch, it’s his job to make sure everyone’s alright. 

“Bly,” he says hesitantly, leaning closer to get a better look at his brother. His face is twisted into a snarl as he watches the blond brother below them. “You okay--”

Before Kote can finish, Bly pushes off from the railing and storms down the catwalk and through the door. Kote looks back as the other three, “what the hell was that?” Fox and Wolffe shake their heads and shrug, but Ponds looks down at the cadets thoughtfully, brow furrowed. 

“I guess,” he begins, voice as soft as always, “it’s easy to forget that Bly’s a mutant too.” The answer hits him like a smack in the face. Of course Bly would be upset by the mutie cadet being bullied, he’s one too. It’s easy to miss Bly’s hair, a warm brown instead of the standard black, with it cropped so close to his head. Vode with other mutant hair colors, red, blond, and white, stick out like sore thumbs, like the one below. Bly’s hair color being the least notable of all the abnormal ones is something of a blessing, though the Long Necks still threaten to decommission him for it. There had been a time when he, Wolffe, and Fox had resented Bly for it, they’d thought that it made their batch look worse than the others; Ponds hadn’t though, he’d actually been the one to smack some sense into them.

He remembers that fight like it was yesterday, _“the Kaminoans hate him because they screwed up, it’s their fault Bly looks different. Bly didn’t choose to look how he does, he didn’t ask for it. It’s not his fault, it never was his fault, and it never will be his fault, so stop treating him like it is!”_ Kote’s ashamed of it now, of course, but acknowledging his wrongdoing doesn’t erase it, and he’s pretty sure Bly never completely forgave them. 

Below them, the door bangs open and all four of them look down, hanging halfway over the railing to get a look at whatever Bly’s about to do. Both trainers working with the group have their backs turned, and either don’t notice or don’t care when Bly comes barging in. He goes straight for the blond cadet, and he and all the others surrounding him go still. Even from up high, they can see how angry Bly is. He must say something, cause the cadets around him scatter. All except the blond one. Much to Kote’s surprise, Bly grabs his hand and practically drags him back toward the door. Seconds later the two of them walk onto the catwalk, the cadet looking like he’s about to wet himself. 

“This is Rex, he’s ours now.” Bly says, leaving no room for negotiation. Bly almost never gets this serious about something, preferring a more non-confrontational route, and with him so worked up about this, Kote knows better than to question him and simply nods along, Wolffe, Fox, and Ponds doing the same. 

Later, when Alpha-17 comes to get them, he takes one look at Rex, Bly still clutching his hand tightly, sighs, and says, tiredly “he’ll still have to do things with his own batch, but we’ll take him when we can.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a Translations:  
> Kote - glory  
> vode - siblings/brothers/sisters, plural of vod
> 
> Based on how we known human genetics works, mutations would be a lot more common in the clones that what we see in the show. I have a whole list of what mutations the clones could have that the Kaminoans would be okay with (okay meaning they wouldn't decommission them), these include hair color, eye color, skin conditions like vitiligo, polydactyl, and other less life-altering mutations or conditions.  
> I would think that there is a lot of stigma around mutant clones, at least before they get off Kamino, so Ponds still kind of acts like bly having brown hair is bad, but doesn't blame him for it.  
> I also think cadet-napping, in which a more specialize clone batch (CCs, ARCs, Commandos, etc) adopt a standard clone trooper to raise. I imagine that the trainers told that Kaminoans that this would help teach them leadership or something. The CTs that get cadet-napped are often captains


End file.
